Cleveland Baseball to Retire Chief Wahoo in 2019

Many American Indians find Chief Wahoo to be a silly-looking caricature and does not represent American Indian culture well.

CLEVELAND – Bowing to pressure from the Major League Baseball’s commissioner’s office, the ownership of the Cleveland Indians announced on Monday, January 29, 2018, it will retire Chief Wahoo logo by the 2019 baseball season.

Chief Wahoo, a silly-looking caricature, has long offended American Indians throughout Indian Country as evidenced by numerous protests outside major league baseball stadiums throughout the United States when the Cleveland baseball team was in town.

Many American Indians consider Chief Wahoo to be racist in nature.

“We have consistently maintained that we are cognizant and sensitive to both sides of the discussion. While we recognize many of our fans have a long-standing attachment to Chief Wahoo, I’m ultimately in agreement with Commissioner Manfred’s desire to remove the logo from our uniforms in 2019,” says Paul Dolan, owner of the Cleveland MLB franchise.

“Major League Baseball is committed to building a culture of diversity and inclusion throughout the game,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “Over the past year, we encouraged dialogue with the Indians organization about the club’s use of the Chief Wahoo logo. During our constructive conversations, Paul Dolan made clear that there are fans who have a longstanding attachment to the logo and its place in the history of the team.”

American Indian scholars argue logos, such as Chief Wahoo, have a negative impact on the self-esteem of American Indian students.

The team will continue its usage of the Chief Wahoo during the 2018 baseball season.

About The Author

Levi Rickert, a tribal citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, is the publisher and editor of Native News Online. Previously, he served as editor of the Native News Network. He is a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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